She ran towards me with a smile that could light up the entire world. We played a game called touch-me-not. Yes, I made up the name because I don’t remember what it was called back then. I think the apt name would be ‘Catch-me-if-you-can’. She smelled of jasmine. Well, that was her name after all. I had a struggle with my speaking as I was completely unaware of the language of communication – Hindi and English. I think I liked her. I probably liked a lot of people. I am a liker. But I liked her a bit more, may be. After all I was in second standard, and what did I know about infa…infatu…infatuation or luv…love, as we so proudly tag to everyone we see. It might have been a dream, it might have been very real, and I would chose it to be real, every single time. I clearly have a very bad memory.

The next year the students were jumbled and we were put in different sections. I didn’t like the change at all. Though I don’t understand the need for changing the section. Though it wasn’t a daily thing, I used to see her in the park where we used to play in the evenings. Can you believe it, the school used to get over by 2. 2 O’ CLOCK! Now, I stay at office until 9 PM and then a hour long journey. What have we come to? So, anyway there was another girl from my section who used to sit on the other side of the class. So it was like this : I used to sit in the middle row while the former girl used to sit in the row on the left while the latter one to my right. I still don’t know what was wrong with me at that time, it was her birthday. I was kind of excited and dragged my mom to the shop to buy a good gift. Because one time I wanted a scented eraser and I kind of borrowed a few coins from the jar which had coins but got caught because the Natraj eraser that my mom used to buy didn’t have a scent to it and it sure wasn’t blue. There was no jar on the fridge from that day. So yeah, my dad didn’t trust his finances with me. But I had an excel sheet ready to help them manage better. If only! I don’t remember what I actually bought. Probably, it was a book, because that’s what kids love, right? Books! If I remember if correctly, it was a book along with something else. The something else is something I am not so sure what it was. The birthday was great. Okay okay, I don’t actually remember how it was but I believe it was great. I used to see her occasionally. I believe I have never interacted much

We flew to a new place the next year and as new it was for me to see the new people as it was for them. But the class had a catch, quite a bit prejudiced, if I may say. There was a group where only the intelligent were part of. I realized this after my first half yearly exams, when the guy who used to hang out with the other guys like us started hanging out with a group which had the brilliant people of the class. Whoa, that’s betrayal man. They used to have lunch together and play together. So, here’s the funny thing : Whenever there was a games hour, there was basically three groups : The boys, the girls and the alphas (Yes, I am bad at choosing names). The alphas had a specific number of people and if I am not wrong it was eight, lets stick with eight. So, on a particular day one of the group member used to get absent due to some reason, they actually borrowed one of the people from the other two groups. They can’t play their intelligent people game with the seven people. They just need to have a perfect number. And who wouldn’t want to be a part of the alpha? Anyhow, I am not going to pull them any down because the “leader” of the alpha was such a cute person. Believe me, she was hot for a 4th standard. The mediocre people like me were always on the lookout for impressing them. This one time I think I did a great thing, but I believe the right word is I made a fool of myself. Have you heard of paper rockets? The one the used to have a paper folded and a three winged fan and would rotate when there’s wind. I was one of the very few people who knew how to make it. My lunch breaks in the previous city came in handy. I realized that the pretty girl in the class interested in owning one. So, I made two and promptly put it in her desk, one for her and the other for her friend, because why not. I came back to my place and was looking from the corner of my eye as they came back. They saw those paper things, examined it, gave a peek at me and mumbled something to each other while I was acting as if I was reading something. And no, I never talked to them again. And no, I never made it to the Alpha team. See, I am not intelligent after all. Wait, you knew that already, didn’t you.

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Memories are a beautiful place to be.

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#RunDown #AlphabetR #LetterR #Day8

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This is part of the series “Real Talk” intiated by the ever so fabulous IQ, wherein I talk about my real life(as if I haven’t already) and share some (not so, or so) scandalous short (and not-at-all-sweet! and long) stories. To follow from the start click on the “Real Talk” label below for all posts in this series.

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But, the post itself: probably numbers at the top of my favourite posts from you. Very real and very coherent and tangible. I had a very strange sense of deja vu while reading it, in part a sensation that I had read this before and also partly because I could commiserate and relate to so much comparable to my own childhood. I sense that this, too, has triggered a future post of my own.

(Just get that plagiarism bit away–that was my explainer for that particular personal series on my blog 😛 shoo.)